What Might Have Been
by Bleeding Heart Sacred Soul
Summary: Even though it all turned out okay, Bob still feels guilty about not telling Helen right away that he was fired and wonders if it would have been better...until an angel shows him exactly what would have happened.


SummaryEven though it all turned out okay, Bob still feels guilty about not telling Helen right away that he was fired and wonders if it would have been better...until an angel shows him exactly what would have happened.

Bob leaned back in his home office chair and smiled fondly at the picture on the wall. It was of himself, his wife, his two oldest children, and his best friend in their super suits, taken just after their joint defeat of Syndrome's Omnidroid. They made him proud, his family. And Helen meant the world to him.

Which was why he suddenly felt a gut-wrenching pang of guilt. He had been fired about three months before, but lied and told Helen he kept going on "business trips". Two months later, she had discovered the truth and come looking for him. As he had been going off to another island to battle Omnidroids and been captured by Syndrome, that meant she put herself and the kids in severe danger.

"I wonder what would have happened if I'd just told her the truth then," Bob mused aloud.

And suddenly, with a sound of wind chimes, someone appeared next to him. "I can answer that," the stranger said.

Bob yelped in surprise and tumbled backwards out of his chair, falling on his butt next to the wall. "Who the heck are you?"

"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you. My name is Thaddeus. I'm here to answer your question."

Bob eyed Thaddeus suspiciously. "How would you know?"

Thaddeus smiled. "I'm an angel. In fact, I'm the Alternate Angel."

"Huh?"

Thaddeus's smile deepened. "I show people who are curious--and can handle it--what would have happened--what might have been--an alternate timeline. Get it?"

"I guess," Bob said uncertainly. "So you're here to tell me what would have happened if I'd just told my wife the truth about being fired?"

"Show you," corrected Thaddeus. "If you think you can handle it."

"I can," Bob said stoically.

Thaddeus put his hand on Bob's shoulder. "Then just...relax."

The world seemed to swirl around them. The last thing Bob saw before everything went dark was himself, apparently asleep, slumped against the wall. He prayed that Helen wouldn't come in and find him like that. She'd think he was dead...and Bob wasn't one hundred percent certain that he wasn't.

When the world re-aligned itself, Bob and Thaddeus were hovering in the kitchen, transparent and apparently invisible to the two people standing there. One of them was Helen, the other Bob. This Bob had apparently just come in.

"So, how was work?" Helen asked him expectantly.

_'Here it comes,' Thaddeus said to the Bob floating in the kitchen. Bob nodded._

The other Bob hesitated. "Um, dear, about work...I...um..."

"Yes?" Helen said.

__

'This is where I lost my nerve,' Bob told Thaddeus. 'I just didn't want to upset her.'

Bob swallowed. "I was...um...well, I was fired."

Helen stared at him. "You were fired."

"Yes."

"Again."

"Yes."

"Even after you _promised_ no more moves. Bob..."

"We aren't moving," Bob snapped, turning to face her. "The city's decided they aren't going to relocate us any longer. We'll be toughing it out here."

Helen turned purple. "_We _won't be doing anything of the sort, Robert Parr. The kids and I will be just fine._ You_can go to blazes for all I care. You are endangering this family AGAIN and..."

_Bob looked over at Thaddeus, looking pale. 'She's about to throw me out of the house, isn't she?'_

Thaddeus nodded sadly. 'We don't have to watch if you don't want to. We can skip straight ahead to your arrival on Syndrome's island.'

'Please,' Bob said, a little shaken up.

The last thing either one of them heard as the room faded to black was Helen's voice: "Get out of this house! OUT!"

_Bob looked around the room and saw himself sitting on the bed, looking content--if a bit sad. 'This isn't the first time, is it?'_

Thaddeus shook his head. 'No, no, very little in that two month period was any different, except that you went home to a luxury apartment by yourself and spent your spare time--when not losing weight--watching Violet and Dash at school.'

Bob looked up at the clock and stood with a sigh, then headed down the hall.

__

'The conference hall,' Bob said softly.

'Bingo,' Thaddeus nodded.

Bob entered the conference room and stared around him, confused at the lack of people, then moved a little farther in, looking again. And then the wall ripped aside, revealing the new Omnidroid. Startled, Bob immediately sprung to defend himself against it.

**__**

'Looks worse from here,' Bob commented, watching his alternate self get pummeled. 'Ouch...and I thought I was **winning** when I was fighting.'

'You're fighting just as hard as you did in your own reality,' Thaddeus told him.

Bob looked at him in surprise. 'I know.'

'I just thought I would allay any suspicions you had that maybe you fought harder than your alternate self is fighting because you were fighting so you could go back to Helen and Violet and Dash and Jack-Jack. You still have visitation rights with your children in this reality after all.'

'I know...ow,' Bob added as his alternate self was slammed into the wall. 'Okay, cue Syndrome...cue lame taunts...'

Thaddeus and Bob listened to Syndrome in a grim silence. Finally, he let Alternate Bob go and set the Omnidroid on him.

Thaddeus turned to Bob as the Omnidroid closed in on Mr. Incredible, standing by the cliff. 'Bob...this is going to be a bit difficult to watch. You have been warned. And it doesn't stop with this.'

Bob looked frantically around him. He probably wouldn't survive the drop over the falls, although he might. But if he stayed put, the Omnidroid would kill him, that much was certain.

He turned fiercely to face the Omnidroid, brave to the absolute last. If he had to die, he'd rather die fighting than die a coward's death, or live a coward's life if he didn't die. He tried his hardest to fight back...

...but in the end, Bob Parr, Mr. Incredible, went the way of so many other supers. In this reality, when the red-and-white banner reading TERMINATED was splayed across his chest, it would be real and genuine.

_Thaddeus touched Bob's shoulder lightly. 'Bob, as I told you, we aren't done. You asked what would happen...well, now we need to show you what happened to your family.'_

Bob paled...and the world around him swirled and disappeared.

Helen was just coming back into the house with Jack-Jack, Violet, Dash, and the mail. She had a Mysterious Package. (It was impossible to think of it in anything but caps.)

Sending the children upstairsto do their homework and settling Jack-Jack into his playpen, she slit open the package. A face swam before her after the prerequisite scan: that of Mirage.

__

'They're going after HELEN now?!' Bob exploded.

'It's been a month since you vanished without a trace, Bob,' Thaddeus told him gently. 'Helen is the only super left in the area.'

Bob paled. 'But that means...oh, no.'

Thaddeus nodded sadly. 'I'm afraid so. Two weeks ago. That's why they want to kill Helen...she's the last one. They don't know about your children yet.'

'Thank God,' Bob murmured.

Helen hesitated. She really ought to refuse...she needed to stay with her family. But at the same time, the loss of Bob's income caused the family quite a crunch. She needed the money. Finally, she picked up the phone.

"Hello? This is Helen Parr. I'll do it."

She suddenly looked around the room. She could have sworn she heard Bob give a wail of anguish...but it couldn't be. Bob wasn't there. Shaking her head, Helen replaced the phone and went upstairs.

**She heard you, Bob,' Thaddeus chided gently **

_'I know, I know, but...how can she even be **thinking** about doing something like this?' Bob moaned. 'She's all the kids have left.'_

'But she doesn't know that yet. As far as she knows, you're alive and well and just don't want to see your children. You just moved, skipped town without telling anyone where you were going.' Thaddeus touched Bob's shoulder again. 'Come on. One last vision.'

The room dissolved, then swam back into focus transformed into a jungle. It was the jungle on Syndrome's island.

_'We're only staying a couple of seconds,' Thaddeus told Bob. 'I just want you to see this. It's vital.'_

Bob had no choice but to watch in anguish as Helen fought desperately against the Omnidroid. But, even as agile as she was, she could only withstand so much. And they had come in late to the battle. She was already weakening. Bob didn't need to see the Omnidroid grab her and start twisting, pulling, slinging her around and banging her into trees. He knew she wasn't going to survive the battle.

He turned to Thaddeus, tears streaking his face. 'I know what's going to happen. Can we go now?'

Thaddeus nodded and touched Bob's shoulder. This time, though, they just returned to an empty black room.

'Thaddeus...what about my children? What would have happened to them?' Bob asked anxiously.

'Syndrome would have discovered them, had Violet killed for sure and possibly Dash--we aren't certain about that--but raised Jack-Jack as his own son.' Thaddeus looked directly into Bob's eyes. 'Has your question been answered?'

'A thousand times over,' Bob answered, wiping his eyes. 'Never again will I doubt the cosmic order of things. Look how many deaths and heartbreaks were saved just from one lie.'

Thaddeus nodded and smiled. 'Good. You will now return home. I suggest you hurry...I believe your wife found you.'

'Helen!' Bob gasped. He turned to face a white point of light in the distance and ran towards it. He could hear his wife calling his name, and as he got closer he could almost feel her hand on his shoulder. But he just kept running. He had to get there...had to tell Helen what had happened...Helen...Helen...

__

"Bob?...Bob, wake up! Oh, God, Bob, speak to me! Come on, honey, get up! _Bob!"_

Bob's blue eyes snapped open. He looked up at Helen, who stared at him in fright and concern. "Helen?"

_"Bob!"_ Helen threw her arms around his neck. "I was so worried...you were just sitting there and I thought you were dead! What happened?"

"I--" Bob took a deep breath, then told her about everything--the wish, Thaddeus, the journey, the horrors of those moments.

Finally, he put his hands on her shoulders and gazed into her deep brown eyes. "Helen, I am sorry that I got fired, and I'm sorry I lied to you about it. But in retrospect, knowing now what could have happened--what would have happened--I'm glad I did." He gave her a hug. "I wouldn't want to lose you. I love you too much."

Helen hugged him back. "I love you too, Bob."

Bob looked up again and saw the newspaper photograph of himself, his family, and his friend. It made him feel even better than it had before. They were all alive. He hadn't done something awful.

He and Helen stood up and left the little office. It was wonderful to be alive.


End file.
